Talk:Mesosuchia

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[edit] Paraphyly of the Mesosuchia

Perhaps if scientists found that the modern crocodiles were related to the "mesosuchians," the Mesosuchia, if defined as "all crocodyliforms closer to Crocodylia than to Protosuchia," would have been considered monophyletic.

This is in fact the current definition of Mesoeucrocodylia. Extant crocodiles are mesoeucrocodylians and are in all probability the descendants of "Mesosuchia". The choice for a new name is of course purely conventional, to create a distinction to a particularly problematical concept. And it would be monophyletic by definition :o).--MWAK (talk) 13:05, 17 January 2008 (UTC)